I wanted to share the enclosed as I’ve found it fascinating what our sympathetic nervous system – there to protect us – can do for us, and to us (or I suppose more precisely what we can do to ourselves). It’s very helpful at the appropriate time – not so much at other times of course.
Also, that information based on thoughts or images of potential danger travels the same neural pathways as information associated with actual perceptions and interpretations.
You’ve no doubt picked up here that the important point and message is that we can think our way into trouble as per the pic.
Thankfully we can learn to think our way out of trouble too: to prevent these responses, and deal with them if they do occur.
Here’s an exercise that you can undertake to identify and recognise your stress responses in the physical, mental, emotional and behavioural domains.